The most well-known and memorable incident involving a catastrophic bird strike in commercial aviation history is the so-called "Miracle on the Hudson" event involved US Airways Flight 1549 on Jan. 15, 2009 in New York City. Nearly a decade later thousands of birds have been killed at New York City airports to avoid more strikes. But the slaughter has come at great expense and included many smaller species experts say are unlikely to cause a disaster. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

Just in time for Halloween a team of European researchers have confirmed that the most frightening thing you can see is a pair of “Googly Eyes.”

Well, it is if you if you happen to be a bird – or more specifically a diurnal raptor, which is the fancy scientific name for birds of prey that use their keen eyesight to hunt for insects or small animals to eat during daylight hours. Eagles, hawks, buzzards, harriers, kites, ospreys, falcons and vultures are some of the most commons types of diurnal raptors. Their especially acute eyesight can be used against them by tricking them into “seeing” a large, rapidly approaching predator that does not, in fact, actually exist. In response, the birds flee the area, reducing or eliminating the possibility of a potentially dangerous plane-bird collision.

So, if you’re a passenger – or a pilot or crew member – aboard an airplane trying to take off or land – Googly Eyes are, well, a sight for sore eyes.

A team of European researchers recently issued a paper stating that Googly Eyes painted on low-mounted placards near runways – or on airplanes taking off and landing - are most effective in scaring off the kind of big birds that can do damage to low-flying aircraft or, in rare and extreme cases, bring down anything from a little Cessna to a huge Airbus.

The academics, from the National Center for Scientific Research, an arm of the French Ministry of Education and Research, and from the University of Rennes 1 in Rennes, France, took a serious look at how best to scare away potentially deadly, crash-causing birds from areas surrounding private and commercial airfields. That’s where such feathers-and-blood birds are most likely to encounter much larger metal birds with flesh-and-blood humans aboard when those airplanes are going through the most risky stages of flight. That’s when they are in close proximity to the ground, meaning there’s little room or time for pilots to recover from flight upsets or engine failures caused by bird strikes.

Could these silly Googly Eyes, which are all the rage this Halloween season, be the key to your surviving your next takeoff or landing? Some European researchers think so. (Getty Images)

Catastrophic low level bird strikes, though statistically rare, are among the most threatening events any airplane can encounter. Data from the Federal Aviation Administration show that between 1990 and 2013 there were 25 human fatalities attributed to wildlife strikes (including on-runway collisions with animals such as deer) involving U.S. commercial and private airplanes. Another 279 people were injured during such incidents during that same period. Statistically that barely registers because there were between 35 million and 40 million commercial airline flights during each of those years, plus untold hundreds of thousands of flights each year aboard private aircraft.

Yet one of the most famous aircraft incidents in history occurred in 2009 when U.S. Airways Flight 1549 flew through a flock of Canadian geese immediately after taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Thanks to the skills and training of the crew, and to the impromptu rescue efforts of boat operators on the Hudson River, no one died even though the plane had to ditch in the icy river when both engines, heavily damaged by the ingestion of birds, could not be restarted.

In truth, most bird strikes don’t result in “Miracle On The Hudson”-type piloting heroics. In fact, it’s far more common for pilots to be completely unaware that their plane was struck by birds until they’ve landed and spot the damage upon inspection. That’s because most such strikes involve small birds, and only one or two of them at that. Planes today, even small private piston-engine aircraft, are built to withstand such events.

But larger birds – those in the raptor class – can do significant damage to a plane’s wings or, worse, bend or break jet engine fan blades, causing those engines to shut down in flight. Unfortunately, such large birds tend to hang out at or near airports, where lots of small mammals – field mice, rabbits, small birds, etc. – and insects are plentiful and easily hunted. Many airports, especially those serving coastal cities, are located near oceans, lakes and rivers. That tends to attract ospreys, geese, ducks and other larger birds that feed on marine life.

For years airlines, airport operators, aviation safety researchers and wildlife advocates have sought ways to reduce the possibility of bird-airplane collisions, with little success. Among the most well-known – but largely unsuccessful – tactics has been the paintings of hypnotic-style spirals on the spinning hubs of jet engines’ fans. That, some believe, captures birds’ attention and, in effect, warns them that something big is headed toward them. Supposedly in response the birds dart out of the way.

"Red" from the Angry Birds floats down Fifth Avenue in the Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Greg Allen/Invision/AP

But the European researchers, whose report appeared this month in the U.S. scientific journal PLOS One, studied diurnal raptors’ reaction to 10 different symbols displayed on low-mounted placards placed near runways, or painted on aircraft. After more than 800 separate tests, the researchers determined that only one of the tested designs seems consistently to prompt big birds of prey to leave the area.

That one design: “Looming Eyespots,” which your kids likely would call “Googly Eyes.” Indeed, the test design looks very much like the Googly Eyes of the beloved Cookie Monster character from Sesame Street, or, for that matter, the eyes of "Red" from the Angry Birds video game and cartoons And, by coincidence, it’s a look that seems to be all the rage right now among children planning their Halloween costumes.

Researchers surmise that the “looming eyes” quality of the design creates a type of visual/cognitive distortion that causes the birds to perceive the design as a large predator headed their way.

Beyond that, not only do those Googly Eyes cause birds to flee the area around airports, the birds seem to stay away. Previous efforts over the decades to run off birds from airport operating areas have failed in part because even when new stimuli – sights, sounds, or even smells introduced to the area – succeeded in scaring birds away initially, the fowl eventually returned as they became accustomed to that stimuli. In the case of Googly Eyes the fright effect on birds appears to be long-lasting, according to the researchers.

I wrote my first airline-related news story in May 1982 – about the first bankruptcy filing of Braniff International Airways. That led to 26 years covering airlines and related subjects at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and USA TODAY. I followed the industry through the entir...